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COALWOOD AND CARETTA
in PICTURES - VOLUME FOUR
YOUNG PATRIOTS of the SISTERS

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"This life lasted but a moment ... like the blink of an eye ... a spring dream only imagined"

Whenever freedom is in danger they rally to the call ... "Mountaineers Are Always Free" 

History in their own words

Front and Back Cover of Volume Four
     

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the young men and women who risked their all to make our country safe for the millions who followed them.

INTRODUCTION

Coalwood and Caretta in Pictures, Vol. IV: Young Patriots is the result of my desire to tell the complete story of the sister camps of Coalwood and Caretta.

     My interest in the historical aspects of my hometowns began in my youth with images of common coal miners who daily trudged the roads to and from the mines to support their families.  They were men whose destiny was to work in the dark holes of Appalachia, risking their lives in murky passages and dim tunnels with little grievance toward anyone.

   I often thought of those miners and the sacrifices they made for the community, and later for America during the war years. I was fascinated with their courage, grit and stamina; and their great love of country and their way of life, no matter its harshness.  When I read Alfred Puchy’s history of Coalwood, my interest grew into a fascination and soon I was collecting everything I could about the sister camps — their people, the mines, and the companies.  And after years of collecting, I found myself inundated with newspaper articles, photographs, family artifacts, letters, etc.  I knew that my collections, and those of others, somehow had to be combined so the history of the towns and their peoples could be preserved for posterity.

     In 2005 I met Alex Schust, and from that meeting the book Coalwood came about. The book itself relates the story of Coalwood up through 1988.  During a book signing at the Veterans’ Center in Kimball, West Virginia, by happenstance, I perused a book about World War II veterans of McDowell County.  I quickly realized that there were very few Coalwood and Caretta residents mentioned — and that there were no black soldiers, whatsoever.  It dawned on me that hundreds of black and white soldiers were written about and photographed in the Carter Coal Company’s Coalwood-Caretta News, newspapers which I had collected for years.

     At that moment, even though my collection was not complete, I was determined to publish that lost history; and by doing so prompt other people who might also have editions of the paper to come forward so those editions might be added to the histories already collected.

     In 2007, I met with Jack C. Likens and J. R. Hatmaker, who were also interested in saving the Sisters’ history and who had begun a family article collection, to discuss how to bring to fruition a set of books that would more fully provide a vehicle for scores of personal collections that were scattered throughout the United States.  Working together, with all available material, Coalwood and Caretta in Pictures was soon produced in four volumes.

     This volume, Young Patriots, is the fourth of that set.  It is a collection of those articles produced by Carter Coal Company about Carter employees and their sons and daughters who served during and immediately after World War II.  Also included are several editions of Coalwood-Caretta News which will give the reader a visual picture of how everyday life was carried on during the war.

    Keep in mind that most of these men and women, who were heroes to us all, never spoke of their experiences during the war, the medals they won, and the pain they endured.  They were just common miners who worked at our sides.

They were the Greatest Generation!

David Goad

Photos from COALWOOD and CARETTA in PICTURES - VOLUME FOUR 

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Authored by Bradley N Hatmaker
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